Always Crafty by Shannanigans: A recap

I am a planner. A calulator, a scheduler, a be-prepared-for-anything kind of girl. But sometimes I do things on a complete whim and it turns out better than I could have planned even if I wanted to.

Last summer when I was (more or less) planning my wedding I came across THIS post by a wonderful girl named Bethany. I became completely enamored with her blog with all its light, beautiful pictures and her creativity that oozed girly yet perfect. While hitting refresh on her blog several times a day hoping for an update I came across a friend of hers named Shannon who has the cutest chubby little muffin of a toddler and is pretty darn funny. I became pretty loyal readers of their blogs because, well, I read a lot of blogs anyway and theirs are particularly fun. Fast forward to a month or two ago when Shannon posted THIS about a crafting workshop at her house in Philly whose sole purpose was to make crafts and laugh with a bunch of other girls/bloggers. Despite never having talked to her other than stalking her blog I asked if I could come to meet her and Bethany and craft my face off whith a bunch of other random gals who had no idea that a loud red headed New Yorker was about to infiltrate their day. She said yes, I signed up and Sunday after a 4 hours drive I arrived at her house to the most welcoming bunch of ladies I've ever come across.

Here's the thing about me: I have almost zero friends within an hour radius of me. But if you look at the country as a whole I've got it on lock down with the amazing people that I know all over the place. It seems that making friends with people who live hours (and sometimes hours and hours) away from me is just destined to be my thing and Sunday didn't let me down. Shannon was more hilarious than I thought possible, Bethany was just as sweet and cute as could be (but with a definite sassy side) and I also met a handful of other ladies who were equally as awesome including Kate who may be the first person I have ever met who could match me in sarcasm. In a nutshell, it was an awesome day that was well worth the 8 hours round trip drive.

But enough about the awesome ladies in attendance, let's get on to the crafts! I love me a glue gun and same random bits of glitter and fluff to glue on to some random salvaged things and Shannon didn't dissapoint for the crafts she came up with for us. She and Bethany also didn't dissapoint in decor because Shannon is a party planner and Bethany is just a crafty diva so everything was divine.

There were stripey straws with my name on them complete with yellow cake pops and an amazing catered box lunch and the cutest decorations (that I took NO pictures of) that I've ever seen:

You don't even know how much I love stuff with my name on it. Don't. Even. KNOW. I cry a little that I didn't take that little heart with me :(

So first up on the crafting agenda was this chicken wire frame to clip pictures to.

It's hanging out in my kitchen, more commonly known as the Land of Anthropologie.

After that I made this little sewing kit filled with vintage notions. I actually anticipate using this because I seem to lose a lot of buttons.

My picture doesn't do it justice, it's full of the cutest vintage notions I have ever seen.

Next up was stamping napkins. I did two of each word and even though I never use napkins (or even eat in my kitchen) I might be tempted to now that I'm fancy and have them.

Yes, that's my breakfast almost every day. Ketchup on eggs FTW!

Normal lunch or dinner. I need to buy green beans by the palette.

After that I ventured into making this baby. It was pretty easy once every single one of my fingers blistered from the hot glue.

It's currently hanging on my front door for all the world (aka me) to see but I might give it to my mom. MIGHT.

Last but not least was what was supposed to be a flower banner but I was winding down so Bethany convinced me to just make flags. I'm definitely going to make the flower one soon though.

It's dark because...it's dark. And I took it with my phone. But it's cute!

So there you have it in a nutshell. Head over to Shannon's blog for a tutorial on making all of these things and feel free to stalk her like I do...and make sure you head out to the next Always Crafty...I promise it's worth it!

*This post is approved by the bun who ate half of the burlap swag bag I was sent home with.